In poker terms, the GOP bet $2 trillion, Obama went all-in, and the GOP folded.

[scheming daemons]

McConnell is saving the rest of his chip stack in hopes of winning the next hand.

[Loge23]

1. Boner's big bluff

So Boner is on the News telling everyone that Obama needs to lay his cards out!
Hey Boner, game over - you lost!
In typical GOP fashion, they will now take to the airwaves knowing that the many uninformed idiots will completely believe their lies.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Does this mean Boehner has agreed with McConnell's plan, and says the House will support it?

If so, are enough House Republicans supporting it to get it through, or a combinations of Repubs and Dems?

[scheming daemons]

4. not yet, but that is the end game

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Which is the end game - support from enough Repubs to get it through

or a combination of Repubs and Dems?

[vaberella]

6. If Obama takes the deal McConnell proposed and Repubs don't follow through...

Well publicly they will be destroyed.

[CrazyBob]

3. Don't rush to judge this quite yet

There are rumblings among the uninformed that "Obama is threatening to stop social security checks." I heard that a few months ago also, that "Obama doesnt want to pay the military." Lets see how this all plays out before we proclaim victory.

[scheming daemons]

5. wtf are you talking about?

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Parroting Drudeg bullshit

They're trying to find some way to salvage the fact that Obama stared them down and they blinked, hard, then ran away with their asses flopping.

:rofl:

[CrazyBob]

9. What I am talking about

Is that there are a lot of uninformed people too. A LOT. And unfortunately they vote.

I had a friend who lives near a military base and I asked her what ppl were saying about Obama. She is the one who was all upset that he was "trying to stop paying the military!" WTF???

No matter what I said, she just wasn't gonna get it. She was livid. I dont think she even listens to talk radio, I think it was the rumor going around among the ppl she associated with.

Same for this thing about Obama trying to stop social security checks. Its just talk. But among some folks it gets passed around so much till they believe it.

It reminds me of the McCain rumors in South Carolina in 2000.

[Fire1]

25. That young woman and her cohorts are part of 60% of this

population who are idiots.

[CrazyBob]

28. agreed-nt

[Wait Wut]

27. A friend "near" a military base?

She must be an expert. Moreso than my son, a Marine, who is ON a military base that has said no such thing. He calls me every single friggin' time some bullshit rumor about Pres. Obama is heard. Never heard that one and he's got two buddies that claim to be teapers. Even they have admitted that our President has done more for veterans than Bush ever even thought of.

Your "friend" needs to turn off FOX.

[CrazyBob]

29. She doesn't watch the news

I can't be the only person who has heard that kind of stuff from someone. Don't blame me.

[vaberella]

7. I have to agree with poster above me....WTF? n/t

[CrazyBob]

10. It took me a while but I did answer

I was relating my personal experience, and what I had heard a few knuckledraggers saying on the street.

[Doctor Hurt]

12. Wait. But how will Obama destroy the social safety net using this plan?

That doesn't make sense.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. The right is now trying to say that Obama is threatening to refuse to pay Social Security checks

b/c yesterday he warned that if the debt ceiling doesn't get raised and we end up facing default on our loans, we might not be able to pay Social Security checks and service members might be the unfortunate consequences. I think most of us understand what he means but the Republicans have, predictably, twisted his words into something malevolent- that HE is holding Social Security recipients, service members "hostage" over the debt ceiling- to save face. Of course, there's a difference between a threat/hostage-taking and (correctly) warning people of the possible consequences of action/inaction but of course the Republicans have no qualms about using this for political purposes against President Obama. :puke:

[CakeGrrl]

19. One problem is that some on this forum are parroting the RW spin.

Count on some Dems to buy into the worst they hear.

Unfortunate.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

31. All too true

unfortunately. :banghead:

[former9thward]

14. Wow. The negotiations are all over. An agreement has been reached.

Someone please tell Obama of these developments. He doesn't seem to know.

[bvar22]

15. I was wondering HOW the Spinmasters would twist this into a WIN.

Obama agrees to $2Trillion in "spending" cuts during a recession, puts Social Security & Medicare "on the table",
and somehow the marketeers call this a WIN. :shrug:

[AtomicKitten]

16. He bet the farm and won. The pot is a clean bill raising the debt ceiling with NO cuts.

That's a WIN!! any way you slice it.

[robinlynne]

17. And where do you see that pot? I don't see it on the table.

[AtomicKitten]

21. The dance is still in progress because it only benefits Pres Obama.

As I posted elsewhere, of course Pres Obama is going to continue the dance. The GOP have offered the escape hatch vis a vis a clean bill raising the debt ceiling with no cuts, and Pres Obama will accept in due time. In the interim, the dance makes him look like a grown-up and the GOP as hopelessly tethered to GNorquist's no tax increase pledge.

[Parker CA]

18. The "clean bill" still requires $2.4T in cuts to be identified by Obama. nt

[AtomicKitten]

20. "Identified" as in listed but not acted upon - NO CUTS MADE! nt

[Parker CA]

22. They need to be acted upon eventually. This isn't nearly as clean a deal as it's being touted to be.

[AtomicKitten]

24. From Lawrence O'Donnell:

---> http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/

link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/12/mitch-mcconnell-debt-ceiling-plan_n_896254.html

The bill would require the president to recommend spending cuts -- without revenue-raisers -- in the same amounts of a debt ceiling increase request, although actually passing the cuts would not be necessary to raise the debt limit. "It gives the president 100 percent of the responsibility for increasing the debt limit," Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) told reporters after the press conference.

The debt limit would be increased three times during Obama's term: First, by $700 billion over the next few weeks, then $900 billion in the fall and another $900 billion in the spring, McConnell said.

"But the bill doesn't guarantee that spending cuts will happen," McConnell said.

"We have become increasingly pessimistic that we will be able to reach an agreement with the only person in America who can sign something into law, and that's the president," he said.

[Parker CA]

32. Thanks for that post, Atomic. I'm still not seeing anything concrete about the cuts not actually

being made if this goes through.

[robinlynne]

26. Exactly. When what we need to do is increase government spending to boost the

economy, create jobs, and RAISE TAXES. Hello?

[Fire1]

23. That is exactly how I see it!!! LOL!! n/t

[high density]

30. McConnell thinks he can kick the issue down the road

...so Obama will be forced to talk about it again, possibly multiple times, as we get closer to the election.